« Will Ichiro Deal Impact A-Rod? | Main | 72, And Living The Good Life »
July 11, 2007
Yanks: Was It Over When The Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor?
(No, I'm not confused. It's an Animal House line.)
From the Post -
The Yankees sit 10 full games behind the Red Sox in the AL East, but the Bombers believe Boston can be caught in the second half.
“You don’t set your goals on second place,” Derek Jeter said last night before the 78th All-Star Game at AT&T Park. “Our goal is to play well and win the division. We know what we have to do. Everyone is aware of the fact of what we have to do in the second half.”
Asked if the Red Sox can be caught, the Yankees captain answered, “No question.”
Jorge Posada said the Yankees aren’t thinking about anything else, but “going after and winning the division. It’s going to be tough, but we are capable of doing it.”
Posada said he feels the Yankees have turned the corner, but added, “Now it’s a question of putting everything together and finding out a lot about the whole team.”
It wasn’t too long ago that Posada said some of his teammates were going through the motions in losses. Posada said things started to change for the better once Joe Torre had a team meeting after the Yankees’ terrible road trip to Colorado, San Francisco and Baltimore.
“[Torre] put things into perspective, how many games we’ve got left, how many games we got against everybody; it helped us to move forward,” the catcher said.
“The main thing is that everybody understands where we are right now and I think it’s time to go,” Posada said. “We have to start winning series from now on, and it seems like we have a pretty good schedule right now.”
[Alex] Rodriguez said the Yankees have to become a consistent team.
“We need to do exactly what we did against Minnesota and the Angels (winning five of seven),” he said. “We need that, that’s a good blueprint to follow; the other one is when we won something like 12 out of 14. We have it in us. We’ve done it before. It’s good to know you can go to the memory bank and know that you just did it a month ago.
As Posada said, “It’s a matter of putting everything together right now.”
I can just see Johnny Damon going into a store now and asking "May I have ten thousand marbles, please? "
Think the Yankees will start using a new car to bring relief pitchers into a game too?
Posted by Steve Lombardi at July 11, 2007 09:11 AM
Comments
They are 10 games back, but 9 in the loss column. Even with that dreadful road trip, they've made up a good amount of ground from when they were 14.5 out.
Posted by: j ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.waswatching.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 11, 2007 11:03 AM
Steve - do you really think the young whippersnappers on the Internets wouldn't recognize the Animal House quote? ;-)
Posted by: SMinDC at July 11, 2007 11:57 AM
On a separate note... based on this quote from Posada:
"[Torre] put things into perspective, how many games we’ve got left, how many games we got against everybody; it helped us to move forward."
Is anyone else picturing Torre with a cardboard cutout of the boss in a leopard print dress, telling the team that every time they win they'll peel a section?
Just me? Okay then.
Posted by: SMinDC at July 11, 2007 12:02 PM
~~~do you really think the young whippersnappers on the Internets wouldn't recognize the Animal House quote?~~~
You kidding, I have more things go over people's heads than Kei Igawa.
~~~Is anyone else picturing Torre with a cardboard cutout of the boss in a leopard print dress, telling the team that every time they win they'll peel a section? ~~~
LOL!
Posted by: Steve Lombardi at July 11, 2007 12:13 PM
Really probing and thoughtful question to ask these players. What do you expect them to say? "Uh, no, the Red Sox are unstoppable. We might as well stay home and not bother playing the rest of the season."
Would have been nice if Kevin Kernan, in the same column, had gotten Jeter and Posada's batting averages correct.
Posted by: TheOmnipotentQ at July 11, 2007 01:49 PM
Unfortunately this season I've heard that quote more often than I cared to at the Stadium as they tend to play an edited version of that scene when the Yanks are down in the bottom of the ninth.
May I never have to hear clip for the rest of the year.
Posted by: Jen at July 11, 2007 03:09 PM